When you shop online do you try to be eligible for free shipping, or are comfortable paying shipping charge. In other words, when you shop online do you shop for X amount just because you are eligible for free shipping, or buy the product that you want and do not mind paying for shipping charge.
Usually , we buy things from Amazon, and since we have Amazon Prime, most of the time, shopping is free and fast. If i want something that isn't free shipping, then it depends on how uch the shipping cost is going to be. Often times, in that case, I just buy the item at the store because the price is usually about the same, and there are no shipping charges. On occasion, if I am ordering something and shipping charges are the same for a certain amount (say from $5-$25 of product) then I will usually order the maximum allowed for that shipping charge. This often happens when I am ordering plants. They charge the same shipping for one plant as they do for several plants. So, really, it just depends on the circumstances of what i am ordering.
Everyone should try to take advantage of free shipping when they can. This is why some people only buy stuff online when they are certain they'll be getting free shipping. They make their purchases maybe once or so a month. Another way to be eligible for for free shipping most of the time is by forming some sort of club for shopping online — couple of friend or neighbors — when "club members" buy what they need together, they'll get free shipping. But if you need just one item and it's still cheaper even with free shipping then I suppose you can still buy it online.
free shipping is just a marketing strategy by the seller, it works only for limited products: 1. products price is low; 2. products weight is light; 3. products quality should be good enough else there will be lots of negative comments. Free shipping is very popular in China because of Alibaba group widely apply the marketing strategy on all of its online shopping platforms, but it is hardly to perform a cluster effect on ebay or amazon because those platform doesn't have simliar customer marketing strategy at all.
I usually try to avail of the free shipping as long as the amount of goods I have reach is at a price I could reasonably reach without having to spend on more items that I won't be using in the end. This is why I'm very choosy when it comes to sites I shop in. If their minimum requirement for free shipping is easy to reach, I would most probably shop from them.
@gracer, I have a very good shipping story for you. I have a friend in China, he starts a Taobao shop mainly selling lover clothing like T shirts, coat which is sold relatively high than normal men and women clothing and there's no traffic and sales owing to his store is new. After a month he almost want to give up as he doesn't earn a penny from the Taobao store but lost a few thousands Yuan invested in it. But he checked there's high sales in related stores, the secret is free shipping. So he wholesale lots of small rings and accessories from Alibaba and start the free shipping for RMB 4.99 and 9.99, those small things only cost less than 1 RMB and the free shipping is 3~5 RMB per shippment. Thus it attracts lots of traffics to his store, and he can sell around 1000 those small rings a day together with 30 lover clothing per day, deducting the cost he can win 3,000 RMB per day. Now his store is even hot, that's why I suggest tips for you guys to start fee shipping business.
@barginrocks Thank you for sharing that story. Your friend has definitely learned the value of offering free shipping and how it can benefit his business well. As a shopper, it is really a plus to see an option for free shipping when I am shopping online so even if I get to spend more on items, I would try to reach the minimum for free shipping. These things are really beneficial for businesses because they get to sell more without looking too aggressive in convincing a customer to buy more from them.
Free shipping is a good incentive to shop in some instances. However, the effectiveness of this incentive to some persons may be dependent on the amount of merchandise they may have to purchase to be eligible. On some occasions, the eligibility amount is beyond the reach of some persons because they are not able to purchase that amount of merchandise, therefore, they would just ignore the deal and shop at the level they are able to afford.
I don't like to pay shipping charges. At Amazon, I have a Prime membership. At Walmart.com I have a Shipping Pass. These are the main two stores I shop at. I rarely have to pay a shipping charge and when shopping at some other store, I do try to fullfil my requirement of purchase amount to get the free shipping. If it is reasonable, of course.
I just prefer to pay for the things that I actually want, instead of being forced to overall pay them more money. But they often don't mind that. Sometimes I don't have the required amount for free shipping in my bank account, and I don't want to have to spend all of that just to get a few pounds knocked off.
It really depends. If I can add something that I'm going to need to buy elsewhere anyway (and it's a competitive price) then sure. I'll push the purchase to meet the requirement for free shipping. I do not, however, buy a bunch of junk I don't need or spend too much on something, just to try to meet the minimum. That kind of defeats my purpose, yeah (but it sure fits their purpose). Of course, if it's just a few bucks more needed, you can always add a little gift on there and hold it back for a holiday or other special occasion or throw in an everyday household item that you normally buy locally. If I need 4 more dollars but shipping would cost 5, I'd rather get something tangible for the money.
